(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Although this book did hit one of my pet peeves in the switching between first and third person, I did find this book to be an entertaining read. It drew me in and I liked the fact that most of the characters had darker sides to them and that I had the opportunity to learn more about their pasts.
There were a lot of really disturbing scenes in this book. Larque especially was a really hard character to see any redeeming qualities to… and although the majority of the troll characters were really disturbing, I liked the fact that not all of them were bad. And I did feel a lot of sympathy for Hhaak. While most of the romances in the book didn’t seem to be explored in the way they could have been, I didn’t find them irritating… and despite there being a lot of characters, I was able to get to know most of them.
I liked seeing Fane’s relationship with his father and brother… and also his friendship with Jink. It was interesting to see that there was a lot of tension between Jink and Kael, even though Fane was obviously really close to both of them.
I didn’t really like the fact that the book slipped between past and present tense… I thought that it would have been better for it to just stay in the past tense.
I didn’t like Fith as a character. I didn’t think he gave Fane all of the skills he needed to go to Skur. I was also interested in the Shadowland… though I would have liked to see more details of the place. I was confused about whether it was another realm or something else.
I did like the fact that Kael’s relationship with Alyn was allowed to develop and I thought both of them were really sweet while interacting with Elva.
I did think that the descriptions in the book came across really well. I was able to picture a lot of the characters and the events in my mind. I didn’t really like the glossing over of time, though… I was confused about how much time had passed.
I probably would read the sequel to this book at some point in the future. I’d like to see more of Elva and the people she interacts with.
Ink of Blood 